It was back in May that we talked about the Atlantic Coastal Conference having discussions during their annual spring meeting discussing a new scheduling model that would see the conference abandon the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions. The NCAA recently repealed a rule mandating conference divisions for any league that wanted to play a conference championship game. Now, divisions are no longer required for championship games. With that rule now removed, the ACC has become the first league to eliminate their conference divisions, starting in 2023.
The new model the ACC has adopted is known as the 3-5 format. That would give each of the league’s 14 full-time member schools three permanent opponents, while the other ten schools would operate on an every other season rotation for ten seasons, five years on and five years off. That would allow a four-year player to play every conference opponent at least once.
In 2023, the ACC will adopt a 3-5-5 football scheduling model and all 14 schools will compete in one division.
Teams will play 3 primary opponents annually + face the other 10 teams twice during the 4-year cycle, once at home and once on the road.
📰: https://t.co/7cvsuH48j3 pic.twitter.com/ne5TjwtfYd
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) June 28, 2022
The Big Ten has made vague interest in dropping the conference’s east and west divisions and adopting the same format. That change would not occur though until after the Big Ten and its TV partners have signed a new media rights agreement. That agreement could make the Big Ten the first conference to earn more than $1 billion per year in media rights.
CLIP: The Big Ten could be the first conference to have a billion dollars a year in media rights
POD: https://t.co/WYHtIh6vnU pic.twitter.com/1kcwQtVlAH
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) June 8, 2022
Hopefully the Big Ten can move quickly and wrap up their negotiations and begin the process of having a division free conference starting in 2024. The ACC has take the first important step and it’s time for the Big Ten to start a trend among the other three major conferences with divisions remaining (Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12) and take that important first step and eliminate divisions in order create a more engaging schedule both for fans and for the conference itself.
Look below at list of Big Ten Championship Game participants.